Generally, during front collision of the vehicle, an impact load is absorbed by crushing a pair of right and left front side frames provided so as to extend in a vehicle front-rear direction in the front portion of the vehicle body, and the impact load is dispersed to each portion of the vehicle body through the front side frames, thereby preventing deformation of a vehicle interior.
In addition, there is known a vehicle body structure in which a front end of a side sill provided so as to extend in the vehicle front-rear direction on an outside in a vehicle width direction of the front side frame is coupled to the front side frame with a torque box interposed therebetween. In this case, torsion of the front side frame is prevented by the coupling to the side sill with the torque box interposed therebetween, which allows improvement of driving stability of the vehicle.
However, when what is called small overlap collision in which a collision object overlaps in the vehicle width direction a region (a region occupying about 25% of a vehicle body width on one side) on the outside in the vehicle width direction with respect to the front side frame occurs, the front wheel disposed in the overlap region recedes relative to the vehicle body, and the impact load is input from the front wheel to the hinge pillar, thereby deforming the vehicle interior in some cases.
For example, PTL 1 discloses a structure in order to prevent the deformation of the vehicle interior due to the small overlap collision. In the structure of PTL 1, an apron reinforcement extending from the upper end of the hinge pillar toward a vehicle front side and the hinge pillar are diagonally connected by a connecting member to enhance rigidity of coupling between the apron reinforcement and the hinge pillar, and a bulkhead member is provided at the height position of the connecting portion to the connecting member in a closed section of the hinge pillar, thereby enhancing the rigidity of the hinge pillar.
According to the vehicle body structure of PTL 1, the front wheel that recedes relatively during the small overlap collision abuts on the connecting member, so that the impact load input to the connecting member is dispersed to the hinge pillar and the apron reinforcement, and dispersed from the hinge pillar to the vehicle rear side through the side sill, the front pillar, or the like. Additionally, the rigidity of the hinge pillar to which the impact load is input from the front wheel through the connecting member is enhanced by the bulkhead member, whereby the load is successfully dispersed toward the vehicle rear side through the side sill, the front pillar, or the like. Consequently, deformation of the vehicle interior is prevented.